Indiana University Athletics
Indiana To Host Louisville (09-09-02)
9/9/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 9, 2002
Bloomington, Ind.-- After a weekend away from home, the Hoosiers return to face Louisville on Tuesday, Sept. 10, Bill Armstrong Stadium. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. IU enters the matchup with a 1-1-2 record. Indiana is coming off a weekend trip to New York where it competed in the St. John's Classic. IU defeated William and Mary on Friday, 2-1, before falling to the host St. John's, 3-0, on Saturday. Indiana has scored three goals on the season. Senior All-Americans Pat Noonan and Ryan Mack each have one while redshirt freshman Pat Yates scored the first goal of his career against William and Mary. Mack and Noonan lead the Hoosiers in points scored with three apiece. Senior Michael Bock also has one assist on the season. The Hoosiers last met the Cardinals on Sept. 20, 2001, in Louisville and came away with a 4-0 victory. IU has never lost the Louisville and leads the all-time series with the Cardinals, 9-0. The Cardinals are 2-2-0 on the season coming into Tuesday night's game. U of L owns wins over IUPUI and North Carolina-Asheville while its losses have come to IPFW and Radford. Jelani Grant leads the team in scoring with three goals and one assist for a total of seven points. Fernando Tolomelli is next with two goals and two assists. Louisville returns 18 letterwinners and six starters this season from last year's team that finished with a 7-11-1 record. The Cardinals are coached by Tony Colavecchia who is in his sixth season at U of L. The fourth-ranked Indiana University men's soccer team used a pair of first half goals to capture its first victory of the season Friday night, a 2-1, over William and Mary in the St. John's Classic at Brooks Field on the campus of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. With the win, IU moved to 1-0-2 on the season while the Tribe dropped to 0-2. William and Mary countered with a goal of its own at the 14:11 mark as Phillip Hucles scored on a blast from five yards out. Alex Brown and Graham Albert were credited with assists. Indiana regained the lead in the 42nd minute as senior Pat Noonan scored his first goal, of the season. Noonan took a pass on the run from fellow senior Michael Bock and kicked it right to left from the goal. Hoosier senior John Swann came up big on the defensive end late in the game. With 3:33 to go, Swann headed a ball on the goal line to deflect a shot by The Tribe's Carlos Garcia. The Hoosiers close out play in the St. John's Classic Saturday night against the host Red Storm. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. (Indiana time) at the Merchant Marine Academy. St. John's struck early, scoring a pair of restart goals five minutes into the contest. The Red Storm tallied goal number one on their first corner kick of the evening. Tim O'Neill served the ball in and Christopher Wingert capitalized to make it 1-0, St. John's. Two minutes later at the 4:34 mark, St. John's added its second goal of the evening as O'Neill's throw in took a bounce on the Astroturf and found Rich Bradley's head. The header lifted the ball just over Indiana goalie Jay Nolly to extend the lead to 2-0. Despite the pair of St. John's goals in the opening half, it was the Hoosiers who controlled the tempo and got the better chances. The Red Storm, though, would dominate the second half and add a goal to close out the game in the second stanza. St. John's went up 3-0 with 13 minutes remaining in the game. Angel Rodriguez scored from 30 yards out on a free kick Indiana closed the game with seven shots to St. John's nine. Seniors Pat Noonan and Ryan Mack and sophomore Danny O'Rourke were selected to the Classic All-Tournament team. After starting the season as a consensus No.1, Indiana has slipped in the polls through the first two weeks of the season. Last week, IU came in at No. 2 in the College Soccer News poll and No. 4 in the NSCAA, Soccer Times and Soccer America polls. As of Monday evening (9/9) only this week's College Soccer News poll had been released and the Hoosiers were ranked sixth. Three freshmen are making an impact in the early going for Indiana. Redshirt freshman Pat Yates has played in all four games, making two starts. The Ft. Wayne, Ind., product also scored the first goal of his Hoosier career against William and Mary in the St. John's Classic last Friday. True freshmen Jordan Chirico and Brian Plotkin have seen action in three games this season and provided valuable minutes. Plotkin has made three starts and Chirico has one to his credit. Most teams count themselves lucky to have one National Player-of-the-Year candidate on the roster. Indiana has two in seniors Pat Noonan and Ryan Mack. Noonan, a forward, led the Hoosiers with 16 goals and 12 assists on his way to Big Ten Player of the Year and NSCAA first-team All-America honors a season ago. The Ballwin, Mo., product was also a second-team All-American in 2000. Mack, who was forced to redshirt the 2001 season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament, was named Big Ten Player of the Year and third-team All-America in 2000. Mack, who hails from Beverly Hills, Mich., returns for his senior season in 2002. A trio of Hoosier seniors have been named to College Soccer News' preseason All-America teams. Forward Pat Noonan and midfielder Ryan Mack are member of the first team while defender John Swann is a second-team selection. The publication released three teams comprised of 11 players each. IU is the only team with two first-team representatives and also has the most selections overall with three. In addition, Noonan was selected to Soccer America's 11-player preseason All-America team. Senior Ryan Mack made his return to the Hoosier starting lineup last weekend after being forced to sit out last season with an ACL injury. Mack wasted no time making his presence felt as recorded Indiana's only goal of the weekend against No. 9 Clemson. One of the keys for the Indiana coaching staff early in the season is figuring how to best use Mack in the midfield, wide or up top. Up until this year, two national player of the year awards have been handed out each season in collegiate soccer. The Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year and Hermann Trophy have made the decision to merge into one consensus honor. Indiana has had five players win the Hermann Trophy and three named Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year. During the month of August, IU sophomores Mike Ambersley and Ned Grabavoy spent 10 days in Valencia, Spain, competing for the United States in an Under 20s international tournament. Both Ambersley and Grabavoy saw action in the Hoosiers' contest with Rutgers after traveling for some 20 hours back to the States. In tourney action, the U.S.compiled a 3-2 record with wins over Italy, the Ukraine and Uruguay and a pair of losses to international powerhouse Brazil, including falling in the title game. The Hoosiers will be without sophomore Mike Ambersley this weekend. after The sophomore tweaked a back injury and left the Rutgers game on Aug. 30 and has not played in any of Indiana's last three games. After determining he did not have a stress fracture doctors told Ambersley to rest. There is a possibility Ambersley could return to the field this weekend. Senior Marcus Chorvat fractured the fibula bone in his right leg in Indiana's exhibition opener against Kentucky on Aug. 23. Late in the first half, Chorvat collided with the UK goalkeeper and suffered the injury. The Clinton Township, Mich., native will be sidelined for four to six weeks. In its 30-year history, the Indiana soccer team had never started its season with consecutive tie games. In fact, on only two occasions have the Hoosiers ever tied in back-to-back games. In 1986, IU finished in a 1-1 tie with American University on Oct. 26 and then followed with a second 1-1 tie against Evansville. The Hoosiers also had a pair of draws in the 1992 season against San Francisco, 1-1, on Oct. 30, and Florida International, 0-0, on Nov. 1. After two seasons as a starter in the Indiana midfield, senior Phil Presser has made the move to defense and taken over as the Hoosiers' starting sweeper. In the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic Presser seemed a natural in the back as he helped the defense hold a pair of top 10 teams to just one goal in 220 minutes of play. For his outstanding play, the Ft. Wayne, Ind., product earned a spot on the Classic All-Tournament team. John Swann was named the Co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for his outstanding play in the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic. Swann, who is Indiana's lone returning starter on defense, played all 220 minutes in the pair of double overtime games against No. 7 Rutgers and No. 9 Clemson. Indiana held Rutgers scoreless and finished in a 0-0 tie in opening round action. IU allowed just one goal in the second match against Clemson and again finished in a draw, 1-1. For his efforts, his was also named the Classic Defensive Most Valuable Player. "I have been a little surprised and dissappointed with our goal production. We have been missing an important part of the equation in Mike Ambersley. We do have enough talent to perform offensively though. I would have expected us to score more, but we also just haven't been getting the friendly posts, goalies or bounces. Sometimes that's the way it goes. We are creating chances though. If we weren't creating chances, that would be a different story. Our guys have hung in there though. They know we have the potential."
About Louisville
St. John's Classic In Review...
William and Mary-- Indiana used a pair of first half goals to capture its first victory of the season Friday night, 2-1, over William and Mary in the St. John's Classic at Brooks Field on the campus of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. With the win, IU moved to 1-0-2 on the season while the Tribe dropped to 0-2.
St. John's--The fourth-ranked Hoosiers fell to No. 15 St. John's, 3-0, in a rematch of last season's national semifinal Saturday night in Kings Point, N.Y. at the St. John's Classic. With its first loss of the season, IU dropped to 1-1-2 on the season while the Red Storm improved to 2-1-0.
Rankings Rumblings
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Pair of Player of the Year Candidates
Preseason All-Americans
Mack is Back
Soccer to Name Consensus Player of the Year
Star-Spangled Sophomores
Injury Report
Breaking All Ties
Switching to Sweeper
Swann Snags Big Ten Co-Defensive Player of Week
Quoting Coach Yeagley
